My journey to wellness coaching began with this blog - my personal quest to be the healthiest version of myself possible. Here's where I write about clean eating, fitness adventures, and raising a healthy family!

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Saturday, October 20, 2012

One Hour That Can Healthify Your Week!

Just one hour can make the rest of your week way healthier!www.freedigitalimages.net

What if you could make your entire week healthier in just one hour? It's possible, if you spend that hour prepping meals and snacks for the week ahead. Advance prep clears obstacles from your path and puts healthy choices within reach, eliminating excuses and making it a lot easier to follow through on the good intentions you had Sunday night.

I take about an hour on the weekends to make breakfast for the week, chop fruits and veggies, bake chicken, make chili, and sometimes even stage salads for busy days. It takes a few times to get a good production line going, but once you hit your groove, this hour could very well mean the difference between a healthy week and promising to do better next time. And if you can see the TV from your kitchen and can watch football at the same time, all the better!

How do you get it all done? Here's a quick look at how I spend my Power Hour:

Put a boneless turkey breast or
chicken in the oven to bake (350 degrees for about an hour, depending on what you're using). Then…

Prep five egg scrambles and put
them in with the turkey. They need to bake for 40 minutes. Then...

If you're making a salad that requires baked apples (like this one), slice them and spread them out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with cinnamon, and stick those in the oven for 30 minutes.

Brown a pound of bison and start a
big pot of chili in the crockpot. Then…

Chop apples, pears, and peaches, peel
oranges, slice strawberries, chop carrots, etc. and put them in containers for snacks later in the week. Then…

Portion almonds (16 is about 100
calories) and raisins in baggies for on-the-go snacks. Then…

Portion oatmeal and raisins in
baggies for breakfast each day. Then…

Line up containers for salads, and put three handfuls of spinach in each one. Add a snack-size baggie of with feta cheese and chopped fruit to each one to add to your salad (keeping the salad ingredients separate prevents the salad from getting mushy). I use strawberries for my Change Your Life salad and baked apples for my Fall Harvest Salad.

Take out the egg scrambles and
stash them in the fridge for breakfast each day. Then…

Take out the turkey, slice it up,
and portion it where it needs to go (salads, in a container for pasta
later in the week, or in a pot of soup).

Store it all in the fridge to
create your own little grocery store at home!

Reaching for something healthy is as easy as making sure it is there for you when you're ready. This hour is packed, but worth it. At the end, you'll have breakfast, lunch, and snacks (and maybe even the makings of some dinner if you also boil some pasta and make a pot of rice!) ready to go.